Poor, poor leaves... Pinin' for the fjords. I cannot even imagine a scenario in which putting dead leaves on a cake could make sense. I would love a glimpse into this wreckreators head, just for a second!

I've eaten maple leaves at a Japanese party. They had been baked into the center of cookies... I gather they were to be considered a bit of a delicacy or maybe our hosts were pulling our leg, it's really hard to know but they tasted mostly of cookie.

Ew. Not only is this cake extremely ugly, but it looks really lazily done, like someone slapped it together when they realized "Oops, we forgot to make this order!" Unless there's some kind of inside joke we don't know about, anyway.

To me, the true idiocy of this is that it probably took just as much time to go outside and collect the leaves (which, albeit not pretty, at least appear intact and not crumbled or bug-eaten)as it would have to roll out some fondant and cut with a leaf-shaped cutter... and THAT, at least, would have produced an edible cake.

Everyone should start their day off here. Not during breakfast, tho; that can get dangerous, what with the spitting of beverages and/or upchucking of solid foods. ;-) (Of course, now I'm going to waste a good chunk of time over at youtube watching MP skits.)

I am not a Monty Python fan in the least, so I think I missed the in-jokes of the commentary, but as far as the cake goes... further proof that the United States is not a culture that values the elderly.

I can see putting fresh flowers on a cake (as long as you're not shoving the stems into the icing) - they've presumably been grown in a greenhouse, been washed, and many varieties are edible anyway. Leaves? Covered in squirrel pee, sat on the ground, and THEY'RE ROTTING. And then thrown onto the cake in a way that does NOTHING to attract the eye. Yuck!

We just wanted to thank you for brightening up our day at work! We have figured out how to get up to four people around a single computer at a time to look at (and sometimes even to comment on!) your site before management gets suspicious.

That is, unless the laughter is uncontrollably loud at the sight of a particular day's posts, or in the case of today, if no one goes to youtube looking for Monty Python.

What makes this especially funny for me is that those leaves are Norwegian Maple tree leaves. This is the tree that was planted as a shade tree in my neighborhood a very long time ago and now grows everywhere (local nickname: God's Dandelions). Which makes you wonder if they just picked those leaves up off the street. Euw.

@Anony.1:09-- I actually thought the squirrel-pee covered, rotting leaves did a LOT to attract the eye; it's just that I then recoiled in horror. In fact, I'm having trouble not nervously staring at them!

@Anony.kate-- I agree that the US doesn't value the elderly, but not that this couldn't happen in Japan, if the cookie story I just read here is true.

EEEEEUUUUUWWWW!! Gross. What if the tree was sprayed with something? What if a squirrel pooped on the leaf? Or used it for little squirrely-butt toilet paper? What if a bird crapped on it or a worm crawled on it? Gross! Gross! Gross! I live in Michigan, where we value our beautiful autumn, but not THIS much!

I've heard it on a few older gents. It's one of those names that caught fire in the 1970s, to be sure, just like "Emma" and "Jacob" had been lying dormant for decades, but now there are 5 in every first grade class.

esist: I think it'd be esist if we just name everyone "Pat" or "Chris."

But you missed the part where the cake is stuffed with "crunchy dead frogs", which were first "dew picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose."

it would be ok if it was nicely done(japanese sweets makers use mapple leaves to decorate sometimes)...but they should choose carefuly the leaves,and not just drop them and make them look like some old leaves some people walked on XD

I was hearing the parrot sketch in my head before I'd read through the post, hearing those voices talking about cake... AnneWV imate... I'm not saying anything, we're supposed to keep this clean, right?

I think I just peed my pants!!! LOLThat was AWESOME!!!! What a great way to put a MP reference inyo your blog. Ok Jen your now my new best friend."It wouldn't zing if you put 4 million volts through it!!"

@Diana--interesting twist! Instead of jumping OUT of a cake (which could get expensive, requiring lots of cake and bakery architecture skills I imagine. Just get a cheap sheetcake, throw leaves on it, and jump INTO the cake. whee! Great way to wreck a wreck!

What kind of ripping-up-all-night party is it where you go to celebrate Byron and Milton? Together? With real leaves?At first I thought we were on the outside of an enormous 'in joke', but... I don't think we are. I think the baker is as lost as us on this puzzle.

So I'm over half a year late to this party, but I feel I should point out - the fact that they're Norwegian leaves made me laugh particularly because there *are* fjords in Norway. But they couldn't be pinin', I suppose, because they're deciduous leaves, not needles.

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A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

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